That Fox
by OctoberFiend
Summary: Naruto, a fox spirit, was freed from the painting he was sealed in when the kids of Konoha Academy took a field trip to the Temple of Sage. How is our beloved fox going to adjust to the modern world? And the horde of hormonal driven young men who are pining after his delectable uke as- *Modern verse YAOI *
1. Chapter 1: That fox, his tale

AN: Ahhh! It's our second fanfic! Of course, mine and Kage's inner yaoi fangirls have been fantasizing about this- **Oye, oye, don't drag others into your own fantasy world.** Huh? So Kage, you have never fantasized about allxNaruto yaoi?** ...er-** Exactly my sentiments.

Disclaimer: If we owned Naruto, Sai would be taking *actions* against our beloved blond's anatomy. ;D ***blushes***

**Warning: This story contains yaoi/boyxboy, if you don't like, take a hike. **Le gasp! I'm so proud of you for showing your inner yaoi fanboy support, Kage! Also this story contains bits of spoilers, here and there so sorry about that.

This story is inspired by the korean drama 'My Girlfriend is a Gumiho'.  
EDIT: 7/14/2013!

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**Chapter 1: That fox, his tale**

"Chouji! I told you! You cannot eat the offerings of the temple. Kiba! Please try to keep Akamaru from urinating on anything! Please stop bothering the monks about martial arts, Lee-"

It was quite obvious to say that the field trip was not going well. Not well at all. Umino Iruka sighed as he told off a few more students. Of all places they could have gone, Tsunade-sama just had to go and pick a temple in the middle of nowhere for their field trip. A temple! For their students! Konoha Academy had a 97% of student population that was from yakuza families. And here they are. At a temple.

No doubt the location has something to do with the missing sum of money and betting slips he'd found in the principal slash village president's office. And worst of all, the other teachers-only bus had broken down so he, the only teacher who'd gone to supervise the kids on the children's bus, was the only teacher there.

Well, at least the monks are friendly and tolerant of the kids. Especially their guide, an elderly monk named Arata. "Ohohoho! Okay, shall we move on to the final shrine? After we get it over with, you will be able to have free time to yourselves! Ohohoho!" The monk knew exactly how to push their buttons. Almost at once, with ears twitching comically at the words 'free time', the kids hurried after the monk skipping down the corridor.

"And here we are! The final shrine of our temple. The shrine of the Kyuubi. Ohohoho!" The monk laughed. The shrine was more or less the same as the 8 other shrines of the Bijuus' but somehow there was something off about the shrine.

"Arata-san, is that supposed to be the Kyuubi?" Sakura asked, looking at the painting hung in the middle of the altar.

"Ohohoho! Yes, young Haruno. That is indeed the back of the great nine tailed fox god in its human form. And that there, the little fox next to him is his disciple."

"But that fox has no tails?" Ino squinted at the painting. The small golden fox indeed had no tails.

"Ah yes, well you see-"

**"That little runt! What did you with the fan the Sage gave me?! When I get my hands on-"**

**The small fox outside the temple giggled as the enraged Kyuubi continued his angry rampage. And it seems like Isobu was getting the blunt of it. Poor turtle.**

**"Where's th- Oye brat!" A familiar enraged voice yelled from behind him. Oh crap. The fox ran for his life as Chomei held the fox back. ("Don't worry, Kit! Lucky Seven Chomei is here to help!")**

"The fox disciple had gone to the human world, escaping the clutches of his master after a prank. There in his fox form, he met a man who would go down in our history books."

**"Ugh stupid old fox." The fox whimpered, limping slightly as he moved. His mentor's wrath got to him just before he could make for the human world which explains the burn on his leg. "I was only playing around." He grumbled, shaking his brunt leg to test the damage.**

**"I-it spoke!" The fox's head snapped up, ears perking skyward in alert. Standing in front of him was a young human, with hair bright like the sun that defied the laws of the universe. The young man continued gaping at the fox before he smacked himself a few times.**

**The fox just continued to watch the human, frozen. What was he going to do? Kurama always forbade interactions with humans and Son Goku told him terrifying stories of the cruelty of men and now because of his carelessness, this human knows! The human jolted as if realizing something and walked towards the talking fox. The creature shot up only to crumble when pain shot up his bad leg. Fireballs from a god aren't easy to recover from, even if one had regenerating abilities.**

**"Hey, hey. It's okay." The human said softly, crouching down to get to eye level with the fox. "I'm not going to hurt you." He continued in the same comforting tone.**

**The fox watched warily and curiously as the human tore took out a small sealed pot and a roll of bandages from the bag he had on him. The human gently cupped his leg and with feather like pressure, rubbed a cool salve on the burn before wrapping it with the bandage. "There. It's not much but I guess it'll help a bit?" He grinned sheepishly. "I'm Minato. Namikaze Minato."**

"Ehh?!" Ino's incredulous outburst interrupted. Her reaction was similar to the rest of the teens. "Namikaze Minato? As in the legendary 'Yellow Flash of the Leaf', Namikaze Minato?"

Arata nodded his grin widening. "If you study your history books, you'll learn of a myth that the Konoha's most beloved leader had encountered a wounded fox, back when he was just a villager. A fox that he'd claimed to be a deity."

There were murmurs amongst the teens and Iruka chuckled to himself. The monk really knew how to tell a story. Iruka mused, watching as his students mutter among themselves. Tenten asked the elderly monk what happened afterwards.

"Well..."

**"I'm telling you, he really spoke!" Uzumaki Kushina rolled her eyes at the blonde who was shoving a golden fox to her face. The blonde had been trying to convince her that the odd coloured fox spoke ever since he took the animal in a few weeks ago.**

**"Is that your attempt at wooing me, Namikaze?" Kushina scoffed, taking the fox in her arms. "Using small cute animals? And a fox at that? You know my clan are said to be vessels of the great Kyuubi. I can't believe you stoop that low."**

**The blonde's face flushed. Yes, Minato had possibly one of the hugest crush on the redheaded beauty of the Uzumaki clan but Kushina punched a hole into every one of his attempts to woo her. Quite literally. "It's not like that! Naruto! Come on show her!"**

**"Naruto?" Kushina looked down at the fox that just purred as she stroked it. Minato sighed at the response - or lack of it. "You named your fox after an ingredient in ramen?"**

**"No. Not after ramen-" They never noticed someone lurking in the woods watching them.**

"The Cloud village wanted the special chakra the lady of a famed clan possessed, back when chakra was the main fuel of weaponry. The Cloud and the Leaf weren't so friendly back then, you see. And I'm sure you know what follows. Ohohoho!"

The girls giggled to themselves. The love story of the Yondaime and his red haired lady was one of the few history lessons with Asuma they enjoyed.

**Kushina stared with awe filled eyes as Namikaze lifted her up in a bridal way; a fact she vainly tried to ignore. How did he find her? The Hokage had sent dispatched search teams, the black ops, the ANBU and yet the one who finds her is the unreliable girly looking Namikaze? The last person she's think would come to her aid?**

**"How-?"**

**Minato chuckled deeply, making his chest (which the left side of her body that was pressed against it; another fact she tried to ignored) vibrate softly. "Your hair."**

**Kushina blinked.**

**"I couldn't miss the trail of hair on the ground since I knew only one person who possessed red hair that beautiful." Minato said before his cheeks reddened at the cheesiness of his line. Kushina on the other hand turned bright red like a tomato. Minato sneaked a peek at the blushing girl in his arms and smiled. Kawaii*~**

**Kushina twirled a strand of her hair; the hair that Minato complimented on. He was the first man to ever do so. He found it beautiful.. Kushina's cheeks burned again. The hair that gave her the name 'tomato' by her bullies. The hair that gave her the name 'bloody Habanero', once again by her bullies. The hair that led Minato to her, like the red threads of destiny.. Huh? When did she start calling him Minato? Like* snap out of it, Uzumaki!**

**"Minato-san." An ANBU came out of the shadows, pulling on a rope that was connected to a group of tied up cloud's assassins who were half naked and had various ink drawings on them. "Can we go yet? I wanna get some ramen!"**

**"Who are you?" Minato questioned, taking up a defensive stance. This person couldn't be an ANBU. ANBUs worked in groups, at the very least in pairs. Plus he's never seen an ANBU member with a fox mask before. Kushina looked at the masked figure too, feeling an odd sense of familiarity.**

**The ANBU sighed and jumped, doing a twirl in the air easily and landed as a golden fox. The fox snickered at the couple's shocked expressions, complete with gaping jaws. "You should see your faces!"**

**"Naruto?!"**

"The fox disciple watched over them faithfully. When the couple got married, it had rained. It is said that when there is a sun shower during a wedding, the fox spirits were blessing the married couples. Ohohoho! Following that, our fox disciple decided to live with them, as a human. The disciple took the form of a boy which took after the human couple he loved so much. But even as a human, the fox looked too... well, too beautiful. Ohohoho!"

**"It's him! He's here!" A girl giggled to her friend watching the boy walk past them, looking around the festival with childish awe. Kushina snickered at the love struck faces of the girls that followed her pseudo-son. Not that she could blame. If she was their age and never met her husband, she might've fancied Naruto as well.**

**Naruto had the same earth defying hair as Minato, though Naruto's gravity defying hair was most likely the result of being not human. His hair fanned out like a golden halo above his head and the blue eyes, that resembled the ocean, shone with excitement with everything he did. His features were soft; much like Kushina's that gave him a feminine softness to the fox and much to Kushina's chagrin, Naruto also took after her funny way of speaking. Many mistook the boy for their own, not that she or her husband minded.**

**"Really, look at them. They are completely smitten by Naruto." Kushina giggled when Minato returned to her side with two dango sticks. Minato smiled softly, looking over at the fox-boy who unknowingly charmed a free bowl of ramen from the lady at the ramen stand. "Oh wow. Look, it looks like not only girls are affected by his charms."**

**"What?" Minato snapped his head so where his wife was pointing at to see a couple of boys watching their son-figure with puppy like gazes, not very different from the love struck expressions that the girls shot the younger (actually older, since Naruto once mentioned being 100 years old) blonde.**

**"You know, I'm really craving for some ramen. Let's have some ramen." Minato said quickly, ushering his wife over to where Naruto was and ordered, all the while shooting discouraging looks at the boys. Kushina giggled at the paternal protectiveness her husband showed.**

"The women of the village were all fascinated with the fox disciple. Even men were not unaffected by his charms. Following his arrival, farmers stopped planting, seamstresses stopped sewing, merchants quit selling, and children didn't bother with school. It was quite the disaster, ohohoho!

**"Please! Sage-sama! That Naruto kid is ruining my life! Both my wife and kids likes him, more than me-"  
****"Sage-sama! My husband-"  
****"Sage-sama, only that ramen shop has customers-"**

"But nobody ever have no haters. The handful of villagers who'd grown to dislike the fox disciple because of their envy went to pray at the Sage's shrine since they couldn't go against the man that would soon become the leader of their village. The Sage's shrine was the first shrine we saw, remember? Ohohoho! The Sage was torn on what to do. Finally he decided to get the little fox married.

**"Married? Sage-sama! Are you serious?!" Naruto gapped at the god. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Marriage wasn't what Naruto thought the Sage wanted to talk to him about when the Sage summoned him. The God of Shinobis nodded. "But I can't marry! I'm still only 100 years old! I haven't even gotten the rest of my tails yet! And I always thought that the stupid fox-"**

**"What did you call me?!"**

**"Would marry before me and I'd make fun of the old dusty fox-"**

**"Okay! That's it!"**

**"Kurama." The fox paused in launching for Naruto's throat and at the stern look he was given, he 'tch'ed and sat back down on the cushion. The Sage held back a chuckle at the now pouting nine-tails and saw the rest of the tailed beasts were holding back their snickers. Well, all except Shukaku who immediately got a fist to the face. "Naruto, I assure you, it'll be alright. Remember the human couple you like so much?"**

**"Kushina-san and Minato-san." Naruto nodded. He loved them as if they were his own parents.**

**"They are married and they are happy, are they not?" The Sage said gently. There were a few silent minutes before Naruto snapped out of his thoughts and grinned widely.**

"But the disgruntled people of the village didn't want their loved ones leaving them for the little fox and so they started a malicious rumor about the poor little fox behind the fox's adopted parents' back."

**"Did you hear? That Naruto kid is actually eats human!"**

**"What?!"  
"Remember the 'Yellow Flash' walking around with a golden fox? That Naruto is the fox! It's said he's trying to eat the hearts of 1000 humans to become human!"  
"That marriage thing is just a ploy!"**

"And so, our fox disciple accepted the Sage's wishes and set out for the little shrine the Sage had made where the first person to come visit and share the ceremonial exchange of wine would become his other half, ignorant to the rumors that had spread about him."

**"This is not a good idea." Minato frowned as he watched his wife fixed the last bits of Naruto's wedding kimono. Minato didn't like idea of how the first person who walks into the shrine could just come in and scoop his son up as their groom or bride. Yes, Minato had already considered Naruto to be his son.**

**"It's the orders of Sage-sama. How can we, humans, deny the wishes of a god?" Kushina said gently. "There he looks perfect!" Kushina grinned proudly at her handiwork.**

**"The young kit looks wonderful."**  
**"Can't we marry the kit ourselves?"**

**"Shukaku, don't hit on my disciple!" Kurama snapped at the leering raccoon. Kushina and Minato watched the 9 other figures in the shrine with them. It didn't take a genius to know that these 9 people were not human. They were extravagant, clothed in material made of the finest silk and were far beautiful than any mortals. According to Naruto, they were the 9 Bijuus and the man with bright fiery red hair and nine red tails fanning out behind him majestically was Kurama, the Kyuubi. "Oye Kushina, are you sure you told the other humans about the marriage?"**

**"I'm sure no one is here yet because they are all fighting over my baby right now." Kushina grinned, ruffling her son's hair. Naruto pouted at his mother and tried to smooth his hair back down.**

**"Alright! Let's get a move on!" Son Goku growled out, opening the red umbrella in his hands.**

**"Ahaha! Son Goku, are you tearing up a bit there?" Chomei chimed making the horned redhead burst out in anger.**

"But no one ever came. Days had gone, weeks had passed, months had ended and a new season began but no one came to claim our fox disciple."

**"It's been months, I thought it would only take a few hours before Naruto shows up here with his bride with all those lovesick puppy looks he kept getting." Kushina whined. "I want to see Naruto!"**

**"You know the rules, we can't go to Naruto. Naruto have to come to us." Minato sighed but it really irked him that winter was now here yet Naruto hadn't return with his new partner. And the villagers showed none of their usual enthusiasm or questioned the smaller blonde's location whenever they saw him or his wife.**

**The Bijuu's who were staying with them also waited anxiously. "Um- maybe it's because of the weather?" Isobu said timidly.**

**"This is very unlucky." Chomei whispered, bringing a shiver to all the ****Bijuu's spine and an anxious frown to the husband and wife pair.**

"The fox disciple waited and waited. None of the guardians knowing of the rumor that continued to tarnish the fox's reputation. Finally some did come to the fox's place but not with marriage in mind.

**"What happened here?!" A furious and anxious Kushina yelled as she finally reach the Sage's Shrine. All the Bijuus and Minato were there, looking furious and giving out murderous aura.**

**"Some villagers attacked Naruto!" Matatabi growled, eyes flashing. It was a first since the two tails was always very calm and polite. Gyuki was seated on the wooden floor, drilling a hole into the ground with his narrowed eyes.**

**"What did I tell you about humans?!" Son Goku snarled, punching a huge crater in the wall. "They show up out of nowhere after so many years lifting the kid's hope and shatter them into tiny little pieces by beating the living shit out of him!"**

**"The Sage is now treating the kit." Kukuo said, stopping Kushina from entering the hall they were all crowding outside of. Kushina tried to push the white haired Bijuu but he continued to block her way. "Naruto is in a critical condition, disturbing the Sage's concentrate can disturb the healing process." Kushina's eyes widened. Her Naruto... In a critical condition? Minato gently pulled his wife into a hug, comforting the red haired woman.**

**"What the hell brought all this? The last time I checked the humans adored the brat." Saiken growled lowly in confusion.**

**"Everyone!"**  
**"Chomei-san please stop pulling me-"**  
**"Chomei got news. It's not very lucky news, to be honest."**

**[LINE BREAKER]**

"Then what happened next?" Lee asked the old monk. They had all, at some point, seated on the floor in front of the altar of the Nine-tails. Iruka had sat on the far end of the hall, watching his students listen intently to the story of the tailless fox disciple's story.

"The Nanabi* and Sanbi* went down to the human world in their beast forms, a beetle and a turtle, and found out of the legend that had spread about the fox disciple. The Yondaime was furious to learn of this. The villagers were convinced that the fox disciple had somehow brainwashed the Yondaime and this 'knowledge' only pushed them to want to get rid of the fox disciple."

Arata sighed, folding his arms into the sleeves of his simple grey kimono. "The disciple not knowing any of this went back to the marriage shrine when he recovered. Seeing the disciple unmarred and healthy only convinced the villagers more that the rumor was true. Once again, our little fox disciple was paid a visit."

Arata sighed again, looking up at the painting. "The villagers tortured and cut off the tail of the fox disciple. For a fox spirit, their tails represent the centuries they lived. Cutting them off effectively kills the kitsune after being put to excruciating pain."

Akamaru let out a whine. Kiba rubbed the puppy's head comfortingly.

Hinata hugged her legs to her chest. She couldn't believe such misery the poor fox disciple had to suffer, all because the fox was different. "Did the disciple die?" She found herself asking in a small voice.

"The Sage found and healed him back to health. And the disciple, even after learning about the rumors would go back without fail in hopes of finding someone who'd accept him and ask for his hand in marriage." Arata said. "But it was a vicious cycle. Perhaps, the years of complete isolation and the beatings and harsh words of the villagers got to the disciple because at one point he asked for death. The Kyuubi was absolutely enraged that the villagers cause so much suffering to his happy-go-lucky disciple that he asked for death and reined hell on the village."

"Wait, so that's the-"

The old monk nodded sadly in answer to Shikamaru. "The Kyuubi's wrath is now known as the incident that occured after the Third Shinobi World War. Even though the Yondaime understood the Kyuubi's anger, he had a duty to protect his village and defeated the Kyuubi, snapping him out of his rage. As neither the Sage nor Bijuus had the heart to bring the fox disciple the end he desired, they used the offered lives of the couple that came to accept and love the fox as their own son as a sacrifice and sealed away the fox disciple into the painting. Of course your history books will have no account of the fox disciple or the reason for the Kyuubi's attack but this is the story that we at the shrine live by." They all looked up at the painting of the dark red silhouette of a man with nine tails and a small tailless golden fox.

"Yo. Am I interrupting something?" A silver haired masked man asked lazily. The rest of the teachers followed the Math teacher, looking around the shrine curiously.

"Ohohoho! Of course not! Welcome!" Arata laughed as he stood.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee tackled the PE teacher, blubbering about the un-youthful actions of the villagers and the fox disciple.

"Ohohoho! That was the gong for mealtime. Shall we?" Arata laughed, exiting the shrine following by the mass of chattering and one crying incoherently students and their teachers.

Sai looked back at the painting. After looking around some, he took out the paint brushes and small pots of watercolor paints he carried around with him and drew a tail on the tailless fox quickly. Sai stepped back and examined the painting to find that dull feeling in his chest still there so he drew on the painting some more. He looked back at the small golden fox which now had nine matching golden tail and felt... Satisfied.

"Sai-kun, aren't you coming?" Ino asked, not noticing Sai quickly hiding away his art equipments.

Sai shot her a fake smile. "Of course, beautiful." The blonde sported a blush and followed the dark haired male to the dining hall. Neither of them noticed the small golden fox had disappeared from the painting.

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*Kawaii: Cute, adorable and the likes.

*Like: Here Kushina used her infamous '-ttebane'.

*In case you don't know your tailed beasts (Bijuu):  
Shukaku - one tail (Ichibi)  
Matatabi - two tails (Nibi)  
Isobu - three tails (Sanbi)  
Son Goku - four tails (Yonbi)  
Kokuo - five tails (Gobi)  
Saiken - six tails (Rokubi)  
Chomei - seven tails (Nanabi)  
Gyuki - eight tails (Hachibi)  
Kurama - nine tails (Kyuubi)

REVIEW FOR MOAARRRR! :D** ...Baka ga kimi?** D:


	2. Chapter 2: That fox, his disappearance

**AN:** It has been a while hasn't it? But we're back! **For now...**Way to be positive, Kage.

sn: Well, here you go, more XD  
**Guest:**** Really, thank you for your kind words. I completely understand what you mean about the plot-less smut thing-** Never stopped you from continuing reading tho, did it Kage? ***blush*  
**Nellto et Otllen-sama: Awww. Merci beaucoup! We hope you will enjoy this chapter as well! And the next, and the next... :D  
**Amber Ice Fox: Thank you. Well, here's the next chapter! Enjoy it.  
Crossdemond: **UPDATE UPDATE! HERE'S AN UPDATE! :D Thank you so much. We thought maybe we shoved Sai in too soon but it worked out, huh?  
**Emily: Oh we just checked it out. Actually I think xXxMushRoomxXx and us, we were inspired by the same drama series, a korean drama called 'My Girlfriend is a Gumiho' but this story will take a more different route. **The world set up will be explained in the later chapters. Don't want to give everything away *grins*

Disclaimer: We tots don't own Naruto. If we did-**Itachi, man, Itachi. Nuff' said.** ... *sobs* why did you bring that up?!  
**Chapter 1: The fox, his story** was edited on** 7/14/2013!** Very minor changes but nonetheless, just wanted to mention that.

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**Chapter 2: The fox, his disappearance**

"Ehhhh?!" The monks paused in their readings and looked up from their scrolls of prayer as footsteps thundered down the hall outside. A very flustered looking young monk burst into the study room. "T-the fox! It's not-"

"Ohohoho! Young Shibata-kun, you may want to take a deep breath." Arata advised the young apprentice cheerily.

Shibata nodded, taking the advice and took several deep breaths to calm himself. He looked up at his fellow monks. "The golden fox in the Kyuubi's painting is gone." Arata's smile was frozen before-

"NANIIIIII*?!"

**[LINE BREAKER]**

"Man, the trip has been so troublesome." Shikamaru sighed as he shifted himself to lie on both the bus seats.

"Iruka-sensei kept forbidding me to eat the offerings." Choji said sadly. Man, those steamed buns looked so appetising. Maybe he should aspire to be the next Sage of the six paths so he would be offered incredibly good smelling steamed buns.

"Choji! You're_ not_ supposed to eat the offerings." Shikamaru shook his head at his best friend amusedly and rest his head on top of his arms and looked out at the window, watching trees after trees pass the windows- huh? Shikamaru blinked. It was still there. The feet. Shikamaru blinked a few more times. The feet were still there. Then the toes wiggled. "Choji," Shikamaru hissed. The boy was a munching on a packet of chips turned to him. "Do you see the feet too?"

Choji squinted at the window Shikamaru was facing. "What feet?" Shikamaru moved his head back to look at Choji upside down to see him squinting at the window confusedly. He lifted his head back up to the window to see the feet were gone. Great, because of the story of the tailless fox disciple, he's seeing things. Shikamaru sighed.

"How troublesome."

**[LINE BREAKER]**

"Ohhh~ miniskirts~" The binoculars zoomed in on the view of fluttering skirts, which showed off a span of sweet young milky thighs. "Ohhh~ hot pants!" The binoculars moved to zone in on another pair of legs. "Thank you whoever for inventing skirts and shorts!"

"Jiraiya!" The binoculars turned and focused on a set of very VERY generous breasts peeking out from the grey kimono blouse. "You peeking creep! Do I have to call the authorities again?"

"Blah! Killjoy." Jiraiya grumbled, putting away his binoculars and looked at the blonde bombshell of a Hokage or, as they called themselves now, village president.

Damn, Tsunade really aged well. She looked impressive as always in her attire even if it wasn't very suitable for a person of her title. Her blonde hair in pigtails, the high heels made her legs look longer and because of the crazy proportions of her body, her chest was really bulging out from the grey yukata blouse. Tsunade never really cared for power suits or modern fashion. Though she did grew a fondness for the shoes. Women.

Jiraiya leaned against the window frame, crossing his arms behind his head casually. "So what's going on? Why did you call me?"

Tsunade paused for a second. If Jiraiya had been someone else, he wouldn't have think too deeply about the pause but he wasn't just anyone. He was one of the Legendary Sannin who grew up with the blonde bombshell of a president, so he obviously saw the hesitance in Tsunade's body language and the uncertainty in her gaze. Jiraiya found himself tensing for bad news.

"You remember the story the old man used to tell us? About the fox?" Tsunade started awkwardly. Jiraiya raised an eyebrow the question. The Sandaime had passed recently so the beloved ex-president wasn't spoke of very much and the sudden mention of both the old man and the fox (which Sarutobi had took to talking about during his senile moments) came as a surprise.

"The tailless fox," Jiraiya nodded, bringing his arms to cross over his chest. "What about it?"

Tsunade sighed and sat at her table behind bringing out a bottle of sake from her secret stash under her table. "I just heard the fox disappeared from the painting." She said, pouring herself a drink.

Jiraiya blinked. "Disappeared?"

"Yup." Tsunade nodded, downing the shot quickly. "No traces of the fox in the painting at the shrine at all. It's as it never existed before."

Jiraiya frowned. "Are you sure that maybe the temple of the Sage isn't behind this? Maybe they are trying to bring in more people."

"Jiraiya," Tsunade said. "Sarutobi-sensei mentioned this, remember?" Jiraiya's frown deepened. Tsunade sighed, twirling her sake cup around in her hands. "The seal on the disciple will be undone when the people of Konoha show compassion for the unjustly treated fox."

"C'mon Tsunade," Jiraiya laughed, trying to get rid of the tense and sombre atmosphere. Tsunade poured herself another shot of sake. "The old man was going senile. It's just old age talking."

"Old age, huh." Tsunade downed her shot once again.

**[LINE BREAKER]**

Konoha academy was bristling with life as the students had dinner; the topic on all senior's mind was only the fox disciple from the field trip. When they had returned to school, they found out the fox had gone missing which raised a storm of question amongst them. What? When? And most importantly, how? Throughout dinner that was all that anyone could talk about.

When it was curfew time, Kiba sneaked out of the room he shared with Shino and sneaked past the male teachers who were gathered at the dorm lounge to get out for his and Akamaru's evening walks. "Heh. Easy as pie." Kiba grinned, breathing in the cool evening air. Akamaru let out a small bark of agreement before jumping out from Kiba's jacket.

Kiba looked down at Akamaru who suddenly stopped and was sniffing the air. "What's up buddy?" Kiba asked quietly and looked around in case there were any teachers around. The last thing he wanted was to be caught and spend the whole night running around the village with Gai-sensei. Even Lee, the exercise loving freak, never risked walking around after curfew for fear of an all night run should his uncle -uncle!- catch him.

Akamaru let out a bark and shot off for the woods behind the football field. "O-Oye! Akamaru!" Kiba yelped, running after his dog. "Akamaru? Where are you boy?" Kiba called out softly, sniffing the air. His keen senses picked out Akamaru's familiar scent and something entirely different. Kiba crouched low and followed the scent where it lead him to Akamaru who was wailing his tail at his find and barked at Kiba happily. "What the-?"

Kiba blinked a couple of times, thinking maybe he was just seeing thing but it was still there. A hard pinch to his arm further confirmed it. Laying there peacefully on the grass was a person. Kiba just knew this guy wasn't a student. He'd never seen a blonde guy in Konoha academy before. And he'd definitely never seen someone wear an orange yukata in the academy as well. Seriously, was this guy colorblind? Who'd wear orange? And a yukata at that. Seriously?

Kiba crouched down in front of the sleeping blonde who was curled all up in a ball. "Oye." Kiba said. "Oye. Wake up you." Kiba said, poking the blonde's cheek. The blonde's eyes snapped open at once and Kiba was given a full blast of the blonde's ocean blue peepers. With incredible speed, the blonde scrambled away from Kiba and snarled at him.

Kiba gapped before clicking his tongue in irritation. What did he do to deserve a snarl? "I don't know who you are or how you got here but you better go back to wherever you came from. Gai-sensei usually runs around the campus." He said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

The blonde continued watching him with wary eyes, mouth still in a snarl. Kiba 'tch'ed. "Fine, do what you want. Get caught. Don't say I didn't warn you when you're doing your 70 something lap around the town, squatting. Akamaru." Akamaru barked at the blonde before following his master.

A loud growl was heard stopping Kiba in his tracks. Did the guy just growl at him? He turned around, pissed but stopped when he realized the loud growls weren't from the boy. Well, not specifically. It was from the boy's stomach. The blonde wrapped his arms around himself in a vain effort to silence his growls of hunger and frowned when Kiba snickered at the blush that was spreading from the blonde's face to down his neck.

"Heh. C'mon, follow me. I think I have some beef jerky in my room. If not, I'm sure Choji will spare a packet of his chips." Kiba smirked, waving at the blonde to follow him. "I can't just leave a guy starving." Kiba said at the confused expression he received. "Come on."

"You're not afraid of me?" The blonde asked. His voice was soft, quiet which Kiba for some reason found odd because the blonde looked more like him; a loud character that is. Kiba raised a dark brow at the blonde's odd question. Kiba could almost smell the reluctant hopefulness from the blonde.

"Afraid of you?" Kiba's smirked widened. "As if I can get scared of a shrimp like you."

"What?!" The blonde yelled, his face flushing in indignant anger. Kiba's smirk widened more if possible. There, Kiba was right. The blonde is a loud character after all. "Who're you calling a shrimp, mutt?!"

A vein throbbed against Kiba's temple. "Huh?! Who're you calling a mutt?" He yelled.

The blonde was probably going to yell out more sarcastic remarks but was cut off by a voice and a flashlight. "Oh? Students out of bed? What a bad display of youthfulness!" Kiba's blood ran cold. Only two people in the academy ever uses the word 'youth' in their sentences. One, Lee and the other, Gai.

"Shit!" Kiba screamed in undertone as the light from the flashlight started coming their way. "Akamaru!" The dog nodded and shot off the opposite direction, Kiba following quickly. He stopped and ran back when he realized the blonde didn't move from his spot. Kiba grabbed the blonde's arm quickly, ignoring the alarmed expression on the blonde's face. "Run!" He whisper yelled, running off after Akamaru, dragging the blonde along with him.

"Wait-what? What's going on?" The blonde managed to choke out as he was dragged. He tried looking behind them but couldn't see everything but trees. Kiba's hand slipped from the blonde's arm to his wrist, making the blonde snapped his head up at him.

"I'm Kiba by the way! Inuzuka Kiba!" Kiba panted out, turning back to give Naruto a wolfish grin. "That's Akamaru!" Akamaru gave a small bark. The blonde blinked in wonder. They weren't afraid of him? Then his lips broke out into a beaming bright smile.

"Naruto!" The blonde, Naruto, said. Kiba could've sworn his heart fluttered but dismissed it as a result from running. Kiba nodded and turned back to the front, hiding the slight flush which he told himself sternly was the result of running away from Gai.

They finally made it to the back of the dorm. Kiba fell to the ground in heaps, panting hard. Akamaru was also laying flat on his back, imitating his owner. Naruto on the other hand was looking up at the building with childish awe. He didn't look the least bit tired. Not a single strand of blonde hair was out of place or a single drop of sweat present.

Kiba recovered in a few minutes and grabbed Akamaru. He motioned at Naruto to follow him as he climbed the tree which had been conveniently planted there. Naruto climbed the tree with ease, despite the fact that the yukata looked a little too uncomfortable to be climbing a tree in (or running, now that he thought about it). It almost looked as if Naruto was walking up the huge plant.

They jumped to the balcony of Kiba and Shino's shared room. Shino had, like always, left the latch of the sliding door to the balcony undone since he knew of Kiba's habit of taking walks with Akamaru after curfew. Once again, Naruto looked around the room with wide eyes. He cautiously poked at Kiba's lava lamp, Shino's alarm clock and all devices in the room. He also almost jumped a foot in the air when Kiba switched on the lamp and squinted at the source of the light.

Shino was, despite popular belief, a heavy sleeper and so Kiba's loud search for his beef jerkies and Naruto's constant movements were all unheard. "Found it!" Kiba grinned triumphantly, holding up a packet of beef jerkies.

Naruto looked away from Shino's laptop which was showing its screen saver collection of various different bugs. Kiba shuddered. He will never get his friend's fondness for the creepers. Kiba threw Naruto the packet of the snack and flopped onto his bed. Akamaru climbed on the bed and curled up next his master.

"It smells like meat." Naruto said, sniffing at the pack before chewing the corner of the packet. "It doesn't taste like meat." Naruto frowned. Kiba raised an eyebrow at the blonde's weird ass reaction. Who tries to eat the packet itself? What is wrong with this guy?

Kiba wordlessly snatched the packet and opened it. Naruto 'ohh'ed in understanding, cautiously put his hand in the packet and pulled out a strip of the snack. Kiba snickered when Naruto popped the beef jerky in his mouth and his face just melting into an expression of obvious bliss. "So Naruto," Naruto didn't look up from the beef jerky. "What are you doing here at the Academy anyways?"

"Academy?" Naruto said slowly as if testing the word.

Kiba nodded. "And what were you doing sleeping in the field behind the football court?"

The words 'football court' got a head tilt but nonetheless, Naruto answered. "I remember being in the shrine and following that big carriage. Did you know that the carriage moved on its own? It was like sorcery!" Naruto gushed excitedly.

"Big carriage? What big carri- You mean the bus?" Then Kiba's eyes widened as something registered in his head. "The shrine. You know the Sage's temple?"

"Sage-sama's temple? Of course. Though, the temple looked really different." Naruto said thoughtfully. "And there were really tall buildings as well when I was riding the carriage. They reached the sky. It was incredible!"

Kiba blinked. Tall buildings? Carriages? Different looking temples? What is this kid talking abou- Kiba gasped. The clouds had moved away from the moon, making its light spill into the dimly lit room from the balcony. The moonlight had covered Naruto from head to toe and faint almost translucent golden projections appeared behind Naruto who continued to yap away.

9 golden projections.

In the shape of fox tails.

Kiba promptly... ***THUNK!***...fainted away.

**[LINE BREAKER]**

Aburame Shino liked to think himself a patient and reasonable fellow. Shino has always put up with his roommate's loudness, his little concern with keeping the room tidy or clean, his dog and the little devil's peeing on Shino's side of the room and let's not even go to the insects the little devil had sent to a downward spiral of distress. But he drew the line when he woke up and nearly walked into the girl sleeping on the floor, curled up as a ball and his friend sprawled out on his bed.

It was all sunshine and daisy with him that the guy was seeing someone but to actually bring her up to their room?! The nerve of the guy! He stared down at Kiba's unconscious form and as if he knew he was being watched, Kiba stirred and finally woke up. Kiba sat up yawning widely and blinked sleepily at Shino. "Were you watching me sleep? Dude, that's creepy."

"Watching you sleep? Yes. Why you ask? Because you brought a girl up to our dorm." Shino said, pointing at the curled up blonde. Kiba looked at what Shino was pointing at before his eyes widened comically.

"Shit. It wasn't a dream!" Kiba said, clutching his hair. "The tails. Naruto had nine tails! Nine fox tails!" He peered at the sleeping blonde and saw there were no big fluffy fox tails on him. What the fu-?!

Shino pushed his sunglasses up as he eyed his friend curiously. What tails was he talking about? Akamaru had woken up from Kiba's little panic attack and hopped down the bed, paddling towards the blonde who Kiba called Naruto. Kiba hissed warnings at his pet to stay away, all of which Akamaru ignored and licked the blonde's scarred cheeks. Naruto stirred slightly and sat up slowly. "Akamaru?" Naruto said, rubbing his eyes open. A voice that was definitely male. Naruto stared at Shino with wide eyes, scrambling away.

"..."

Kiba snickered at his friend's reaction to Naruto's reaction, forgetting about the tails he'd seen on Naruto for a moment. "I got more or less the same reaction when I found him last night." Kiba said, patting Shino's shoulder.

"Found him?"

Kiba nodded. "I found him in the forest behind the football field on my walk. Dude totally freaked out and snarled at me when I found him. You got a better reaction than I did."

Naruto was watching them from behind Shino's bed and yelped when Shino's phone suddenly went off. With incredible speed, Naruto hid behind Kiba. "Kiba! It's sorcery again! The box is glowing and playing music!"

"..." Shino stared at Naruto, who was frantically pointing at Shino's phone with a mix of excitement and astonishment, from behind his sunglass.

"I know this will sound weird but," Kiba lowered his voice and muttered softly so the blonde wouldn't hear. "I think Naruto could be the fox from the shrine."

**[LINE BREAKER]**

After instructing Naruto to stay put in their dorm, they went to class. Kiba had reluctantly,_ very reluctantly_, left Akamaru behind to keep the blonde company. The friends had to abandon the idea of breakfast since breakfast was nearly over when they finally left the dorm and walked to class with Kiba filling Shino in with all the details.

"I think you may have been seeing things. Why you ask? Because such things only happen in mangas, not in real life." Shino said.

Kiba 'tch'ed at the bug boy. "I'm telling you. Naruto is definitely the fox disciple who got sealed in the painting. I mean how often does something from a painting disappear and a guy shows up out of the blues with fox tails appearing?"

"There were no tails on Naruto this morning. Why? Because you were definitely seeing things. All this talk of the fox disciple and the trip did this. Naruto is not the fox disciple." Shino said slowly, as if trying to convince a 5-year-old that no, there were no monsters in the closet.

"Who's not the fox disciple?" Ino asked, popping out behind them followed by Shikamaru and Choji.

"Kiba found a per-"

Kiba quickly slapped a hand over Shino's mouth and said quickly, "N-no one! Nobody at all." The InoShikaCho trio raised an eyebrow at the pair before shrugging it off and entering the classroom. "What are you-! Do you even-? Ugh!" Kiba groaned, throwing his hands in the air.

"..."

Kiba just glares at his friend, understanding words in the silence and 'shh'ed him before stomping into the classroom. Shino heaved a silent sigh before entering the classroom. It is going to be a longgggg day.

* * *

***NANIIIIII?!** - WHATTTTTTT?!

Thank you so much for reviewing, favorite-ing, following and all that nice things. **Co****ntinue doing so to keep us happy and to feed the plot bunnies in our heads. Until **then! Kris & **Kage signing **O**U**T**!**


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